Green Tomato Soup

I recently discovered this recipe for Green Tomato Soup and made it for the first time yesterday with some of the multitude of green tomatoes we have in the garden. The verdict is in…it’s a hit! It is very flavorful and full of yumminess. I originally found the recipe at food.com, but have tweaked it just a tad. I’ll share my version with you:

Green Tomato Soup

• 8 slices bacon, roughly chopped
• 1 large onion, diced small
• 1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped
• 1 whole bay leaf
• 5 cups chopped unripe green tomatoes
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup milk or cream

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
2. Add bacon and cook until browning. (not all the way browned)
3. Add onion, garlic and bay leaf and cook until tender.
4. Add salt, pepper and tomatoes and stir well, then add broth and water.
5. Bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer and cook for one hour (with pot partially covered).
6. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
7. Stir in milk or cream.
8. Puree soup with a stick blender or process in food processor until smooth.

The original recipe called for more water than broth and scallions instead of onion. I found that I wasn’t fond of the chunkiness of the soup, so I pureed it at the end. The original recipe also recommended cooking for 35 minutes. I didn’t feel as if it was enough cooking time, as my tomatoes were still quite crunchy. So I left it on the stove until they were nice and mushy. (probably over and hour, but you can decide when yours is perfect). I had cooked the rest of the bacon in the pack, crumbled it and used it as a topping for the soup.

Pretty darn fabulous I must say! Rumor has it that the soup freezes well too, so I see another batch in the near future. I’m so excited that I found another thing to do with all of those unripe tomatoes!